Tax Reform: Repeal & Replace

The tax law that the Republican Congress passed in 2017 was a deliberate attack on states like New Jersey, where we have chosen to have better schools for our kids and services for our citizens.

Eliminating deductibility of state and local and property taxes will cost middle class families in New Jersey dearly, and has already resulted in a loss of property values in our state. New Jerseyans already get only 72 cents back from the federal government for every dollar we send to Washington (the worst of any state); the tax law makes that problem even worse.

The GOP tax law was also an act of economic malpractice: it will add $2 trillion to our national debt, largely to give the wealthiest Americans and corporations a tax break, which they have used mostly to reward their investors, not their employees. That’s $2 trillion we will not have to build infrastructure, or to relieve college debt, or to stimulate the economy during the next recession, or to pay down the debt when growth is strong. And Republicans are already threatening to pay for this scam by cutting Social Security and Medicare — which we must not allow to happen.

I will work to repeal the GOP tax law and replace it with fiscally responsible tax reform. New tax legislation must preserve middle class tax deductions like the State and Local Tax deduction (SALT), which prevented us from being double-taxed on our state payments, close corporate and special interest loopholes, bring home money stashed in foreign tax shelters, and avoid ballooning the deficit. A great New Jersey Senator, Bill Bradley, worked with Ronald Reagan to pass that kind of tax reform 30 years ago, and we can do it again. Support for such an effort will be one of my main demands of anyone who wants my vote for Speaker of the House.